Everyone Gets a Gun

Everyone gets a gun, and the big red clown shoes of the progressive, anti-gun left.

A few days ago, the NRA released a new video from commentator Billy Johnson (Amidst The Noise) called Everyone Gets a Gun, which caused the progressive, anti-gun left to immediately have a collective conniption (see exhibits A, B, C).

Now while this in and of itself isn’t news – the anti-gun crowd frequently has fits of hysteria about all things guns, because scary – the REASON for the hysteria is interesting. It’s also a bit confusing, because I can’t decide if the writers at Media Matters, Gawker, et al. are really as stupid as they sound, or if they’re simply being intentionally disingenuous to mislead people who can’t think for themselves.

In the video, Billy laid out what CLEARLY IS A THOUGHT EXPERIMENT (all caps so that you don’t miss it) about gun policy in America. A hypothetical, even somewhat facetious discussion about how we think about guns, and the disconnect with our public policy. If you missed the video, take a couple minutes to watch.

Billy makes an excellent point – look at how we as a country treat thingsÂ like education, healthcare, and parks that are NOT Constitutionally protected rights, versus firearms, which ARE a Constitutionally protected right (whether you like it or not). Billy’s video asks us to view gun policy through the same lens that we view education, even if it’s just for a few minutes. Is it really so crazy to think that our gun policy should do justice to the original intent of the Second Amendment? Maybe a better question is, what would America look like if it did?

It might look a lot like Switzerland. In Switzerland, men between the ages of 20 and 30 are conscripted into the militia and undergo mandatory military and weapons training. Paid for by the government. Men are issued the SIG SG 550 assault rifle, and in some cases a SIG P220 9mm pistol, which are kept at home. Again, paid for by the government. Ammunition is also subsidized by the Swiss government and made available at shooting ranges for both private citizens and members of the militia.

Legally required to possess a gun, to know how to use it, and all subsidized by the government. Not too different from what Billy discussed in the video now is it?

I contacted Billy to get his thoughts on the anti-gun reaction to Everyone Gets a Gun, and I’ll leave you with his response:

Regardless of political philosophy, whether you agree or disagree with subsidies and mandates, letâ€™s look at reality today. Things we view as righteous – healthcare, education, food and a host of other things – we subsidize. We write policy to protect access to those things, none of which are constitutionally-protected rights.Â All Iâ€™m saying in this video is, what would gun policy look like if we valued guns similarly? How would we write policy if our goal was to protect access to guns? So, I engaged in a hypothetical exercise to envision what that gun policy would like. And, the twitter sphere went nuts.

10 Responses to Everyone Gets a Gun

Those writers at Media Matters aren’t stupid, but you’re absolutely right, their readers (and most of America) can’t think for themselves. They have to have their viewpoints spoon-fed to them, so of course something like Billy’s video, which requires some thought, is easily misconstrued.

The same could be said for mental health, and poverty. What if instead of pretending to care, we actually had policy that required us to? Would this in turn, solve some of our gun ‘problem’? (as I check my range schedule for the weekend ;). That would sadly also require a society that really cares about society, beyond their own four walls.

I left a few, ok, MANY poop stirring comments… Im sure their heads will hurt trying to think of something to come back on: “Vehicles kill more children every year than firearms. Where is your outcry to ban them. Thank you for playing, try again.”

What you forget to mention, they only get a gun in Switzerland when a soldier manages to walk 30 Kilometers in his full gear (which means physically fit). So how many (percentage) in the US would be able to do that without collapsing?